Putting the Protest in Protestant
A mantra in evangelical higher education as long as I’ve been around it (I no longer teach at one) is that born-again Protestant colleges offer a distinct alternative to secular institutions because evangelical faculty bring Christianity to bear on all teaching and subjects.
Maybe.
But the problem of such a boast is that it invites professors, some of whom have no more expertise about Scripture of theology, to apply their Sunday-school level understanding of the faith to a host of subjects.
One such example comes from a recent story about athletics at Baylor University. Granted, Baylor may not appreciate being lumped with evangelicals — some Southern Baptists used to grouse that “evangelical” is a Yankee term. But the justification for the D-1 athletic program invoked some of the same sort of fuzzy evangelical idealism that too often afflicts the integraters of faith and learning:
Like his view on Baylor athletics, the décor of Starr’s office is a congruence of faith and sports. Each windowsill is devoted to a different Baylor team. Championship rings abound, as do footballs and basketballs from notable games. Taking up nearly the entire length of his desk is a large wooden plaque featuring a Psalm printed in Chinese: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
In Scripture, Starr noted, there are at least 22 references to athletics.
“I think what that tells us is that there is something fundamentally human about competition and that it is a vital form of human activity and, I believe, of human flourishing,” he said. “We view athletics as complementary of spiritual formation. You have a moral obligation to be the very best you can be, but to do so with integrity.”
I’d be hard pressed to marshal biblical support for college athletics generally. But the NCAA? Puh-leeze.
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